The Blue Mountains is not one place. It is a string of towns and villages running along the ridge from Lapstone and Glenbrook at the bottom to Mount Victoria and Bell at the top.
The land on either side of that strip falls away quickly into bush. That shapes what can be built in a backyard and how a fence has to be set out.
Two things follow from that. Sites are steep, and often small once the slope takes its share. And the winters are genuinely cold, with frost through the upper mountains and the occasional snowfall, which is hard on anything that has to keep closing and latching.
The Blue Mountains at a glance
- Blue Mountains City Council administers the Swimming Pools Act 1992 and runs a swimming pool inspection program. Council\'s program mandates that every pool and spa be inspected at least every five years.
- Suburbs and villages I inspect include Lapstone, Glenbrook, Blaxland, Mount Riverview, Warrimoo, Valley Heights, Springwood, Winmalee, Yellow Rock, Hawkesbury Heights, Faulconbridge, Linden, Woodford, Hazelbrook, Lawson, Bullaburra, Wentworth Falls, Leura, Katoomba, Medlow Bath, Blackheath, Mount Victoria, Bell, Mount Wilson, Mount Irvine and Sun Valley.
- Steep blocks and gully sections are routine on private property here, so fence height has to be checked at every point along a run.
- On bushfire prone land, deck and screen materials answer to a different set of rules from the pool barrier itself.
- Premises with more than two dwellings, and tourist and visitor accommodation, are inspected at least once every three years.
What this area does to a pool fence
Winter is the first factor, and it is the one that surprises people. A pool that sits unused from April to October is still behind a barrier all year. Frost splits timber, seizes latch mechanisms, rusts springs and hinges, and buckles the ground a post is set in. A mountain fence ages faster than a coastal one because of the freeze and thaw, not in spite of it.
Slope is the second. Very few Blue Mountains blocks are flat, and a fence stepping down a slope has to hold its height at every point, measured from outside the pool area. The low side of a run is almost always where a shortfall appears, particularly after soil and garden material have built up behind it.
Steep sites mean retaining walls, and retaining walls are the third factor. Council requires steps, retaining walls and level changes to sit 500mm clear of the fence, with nothing intruding into the 900mm non-climbable zone. On a site that falls away toward a gully, that combination is genuinely demanding, and it is worth working out before a fence is built rather than after.
Fourth, the bushfire interface. Decks, screens and timber structures are often built to bushfire requirements, and those requirements are not the same as pool barrier requirements. A fire rated deck is not automatically a compliant barrier, and it often provides a step rather than a wall.
Who can issue the certificate here
Blue Mountains City Council administers the Act in the City, keeps the local record of pools, investigates complaints and inspects under its program. The five year inspection cycle applies to pools and spas generally.
You are not required to use Council. An accredited certifier can inspect the pool and issue the certificate instead, and it is the same document from the same NSW Swimming Pool Register. Under the Regulation, an inspection request must be actioned within 10 business days.
On a mountain property there is usually something specific to resolve: an escarpment edge, a bushfire overlay, an old approval from a council that no longer exists in the same form. Book, and you get one certifier the whole way through. The person who answers your call is the one who turns up, makes the call on the day and signs the certificate.
What I check in the Blue Mountains
I start with the property and its constraints, because here the site does much of the work. Where the escarpment falls, how the block drains, what the bushfire mapping says about the side of the pool the house is on, and whether any retaining structure is holding more than garden soil.
Then the fence as one system, walked end to end and measured from outside the pool area at every point along a run that is rarely level. Gaps under, between and through panels. Gates for self-closing, self-latching and outward swing, with the latch release at 1.5m and the shield where a tubular gate needs one. The 900mm non-climbable zone, inside and out, including the firewood stack, the water tank, the garden beds, the pump, the trampoline and the rock outcrops.
Then the parts that get overlooked: the visible CPR and warning sign in the pool area, the registration, and doors and windows that open toward the pool. What the visit covers is on the inspections page, and the numbers are in the fence rules guide.
If something does not pass
The findings I see most often up here are a seized latch or a rusted spring after a cold winter, a gate that has dropped as the ground has moved, a section of fence that is short on the low side of a slope, and a retaining wall or a firewood stack sitting inside the non-climbable zone. If something does not pass and it is minor, we work out how to put it right there and then.
You leave with your certificate the same day either way, and if the pool does not pass, the certificate of non-compliance sets out exactly what needs to change.
Frequently asked questions
How often does Blue Mountains City Council inspect pools?
Council's program mandates that every pool and spa be inspected at least every five years. That is a longer cycle than the three yearly inspections that apply to premises with more than two dwellings and to tourist and visitor accommodation, which sit under a separate mandatory requirement.
The pool is only used for a few months a year. Does that change anything?
No. The requirement to keep the pool behind a compliant barrier applies all year, and a barrier that has been left to sit through a mountain winter is exactly where I find seized latches, rusted springs and gates that no longer close.
We have a spa with a lockable lid. Does it need a fence?
A spa with a lockable lid may not need separate fencing provided the lid is in place and locked whenever the spa is not in use. If the spa does not have a lockable lid, or it is a swim spa with a swimming area, the usual barrier requirements apply.
We are building a new pool. What approval do we need?
Any pool or spa with a volume over 2,000 litres requires approval, through either a development application or a complying development certificate. That applies to in ground pools, above ground pools, inflatables and spas alike. Approval is a separate matter from the barrier compliance certificate you need later.
Our block drops away toward a gully. How much does that affect the fence?
A lot. On steep ground the fence height has to be measured from outside the pool area at every point, and a section of fence that steps down a slope is where shortfalls appear. Retaining walls and level changes also have to sit 500mm clear of the fence, which is difficult on a steep site and worth planning before any work starts.
Sources
- Blue Mountains City Council, backyard pools
- Swimming Pools Act 1992 (NSW)
- Swimming Pools Regulation 2018 (NSW)
- NSW Swimming Pool Register, owner checklists
- Standard AS 1926.1-2012, Swimming pool safety: Safety barriers for swimming pools
Last reviewed 12/10/2026. Practical information from a registered certifier, not legal advice.